Gracing The Stage

Edit: Update 259 is still to come; these launch shows took a LOT out of me, though I couldn’t be happier with what happened on-stage, both nights (a more detailed description, and an incredible array of photos of the events, will be posted very soon). Hopefully, the update will be up by Sunday evening, but if not, this Sunday, you should consider attending the closing of the Rhubarb Festival, the Rural Alberta Advantage headlining Wavelength, or the Bruce Penisula CD release. – Steve

So, I haven’t exactly been keeping a strict schedule of daily posts this past week. The truth is, I’ve still been “internet-ing” plenty – but mostly for other people; answering interview questions, sending on hi-res photos, etc., etc.

Melissa D'Agostino and her character Lupe (who's on the bill for Saturday's Comedy Bar show) were interviewed in Torontoist this week.

And it sure has paid off; Gracing the Stage (and this weekend’s launch parties) has been extensively profiled by Torontoist’s theatre writer, Johnnie Walker, and Historyjen, a blogger affiliated with the Toronto Music Blog Collective, over the past two days.

When two of the city’s most authoritative bloggers, representing both the theatre community and the music community (Jen is, to my knowledge, the only music blogger ever given her own profile on Blog T.O.), are willing to devote so much text to these launch shows, you gotta figure they’re truly going to be something special.

Johnnie’s article, focusing on Convergence Theatre’s spearheading of the movement to amend the CAEA Agreement for Indie Theatre, and Melissa D’Agostino, who was named a “Hero of 2008″ by Torontoist, can be found here:

http://torontoist.com/2009/02/drama_club_inequity.php

Friday’s (and Saturday’s, really) show is the top pick on Torontoist’s Urban Planner, too!

http://torontoist.com/2009/02/urban_planner_february_20_2009.php

Jen’s post, with information about ALL the music acts performing this weekend, videos of The Williamson Playboys and The Sweatshop Hop, and MP3s from Entire Cities, Gravity Wave, Peter Katz, and Jehan Khoorshed, can be found here:

http://torontomusicblogcollective.blogspot.com/2009/02/gracing-stage.html

Or here…

http://historyjen.blogspot.com/2009/02/gracing-stage.html

The audience at Woodhands' Over the Top 2008 showcase. In this photo are Gracing the Stage editor Steve Fisher, local man about town Chris De Castro, comedian Marjorie Malpass, music blogger Jennifer Polk, and photographer and Sweatshop Hop performer Corbin Smith (Corbin is unfortunately on the bench for this Saturday's performance at Comedy Bar, due to a foot injury). Photo by Garry Tsaconas.

I’ll be editing this post with more links to articles about Gracing the Stage and this weekend’s shows as they turn up online (at least two other publications have something in the works). And tomorrow’s update is still scheduled to go out on time, before I head off to Bread and Circus to prep for the evening’s extravaganza!

(I’m going to crash SO hard on Sunday…)